CHICAGO AREA FORECLOSURES STABILIZE IN MAY ACCORDING TO REALTYTRAC™ U.S. FORECLOSURE MARKET REPORT

Foreclosures Level Off After Spike Previous Month Illinois Foreclosures Down One Percent

Irvine, Calif. – May 16, 2006 – Chicago area foreclosure activity leveled off in May, rising less than one-tenth of a percent after a 57 percent spike the previous month, according to the RealtyTrac™ 2006 Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The 14-county metropolitan area reported 6,104 properties entering some stage of foreclosure and a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 567 households.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure properties, with nearly 650,000 properties from more than 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate, AOL Real Estate and Knight Ridder Online.

“This is the fourth straight month that Chicago area foreclosures have risen, but the infinitesimal increase this month indicates that the recent run-up in foreclosures may be nearing its peak,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The four-month upward trend has left the region’s foreclosure rate well above the national average and second highest among the nation’s top metro areas.”

Chicago’s foreclosure rate was 2.2 times the national average and higher than the foreclosure rates in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia but still lower than the foreclosure rate in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Cook County reported 4,159 properties entering some stage of foreclosure in May, an increase of nearly 4 percent from the previous month and a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 504 households. That foreclosure rate was about 2.5 times the national average and 1.5 times the state average.

Half of the collar counties around Chicago reported increasing foreclosures and half reported decreasing foreclosures. The biggest increase came in DuPage County, where 415 properties entered some stage of foreclosure, a nearly 44 percent increase from the previous month and a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 809 households — 1.5 times the national average.

Grundy County was the only collar county to document a foreclosure rate below the national average. The county reported just six properties entering some stage of foreclosure, a 50 percent decrease from the previous month and a foreclosure rate on one new foreclosure filing for every 2,507 households.

Will County documented the region’s highest county foreclosure rate despite a 31 percent decrease in foreclosure activity. The county reported 436 properties entering some stage of foreclosure, a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 403 households — more than three times the national average.

Illinois reported 6,359 properties entering some stage of foreclosure in May, a decrease of 1 percent from the previous month but a nearly 30 percent year-over-year increase from May 2005. The state’s foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 769 households was 1.6 times the national average.

Nationwide a total of 92,746 properties entered some stage of foreclosure in May, an increase of less than 2 percent from the previous month but still a 28 percent year-over-year increase from May 2005, and the nation documented a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 1,247 U.S. households. May’s increase ended two months of declining foreclosure activity nationwide.

The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides the total number of homes in some stage of foreclosure nationwide, by state and in the nation’s five largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas over the preceding month. RealtyTrac’s report includes properties in all three phases of foreclosure: Pre-foreclosures – Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Foreclosures – Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and re-purchased by a bank).

About RealtyTrac Inc. Ranked as the third largest real estate site by MediaMetrix, RealtyTrac Inc. (www.realtytrac.com), is the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, providing all the resources that home seekers, investors and real estate agents need to locate, evaluate and buy properties below market value. Founded in 1996, RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, For Sale By Owner, resale and new construction properties, with more than 1 million properties across the country, property reports, productivity tools and extensive professional resources. RealtyTrac hosts nearly 3 million unique visitors monthly and has been chosen to supply foreclosure data to AOL Real Estate, MSN Real Estate and Yahoo! Real Estate. For more information, visit www.realtytrac.com.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.